The Colorado Springs Police Department formed a
nontraditional domestic violence unit in 1996 called the Domestic
Violence Enhanced Response Team (DVERT). This unit involved a
partnership and collaboration with the Center for the Prevention of
Domestic Violence, a private, nonprofit victim advocacy organization,
and 25 other city and county agencies. DVERT was unique in its focus
on the safety of the victim over the arrest and prosecution of the
batterer. It was also different from the tr... (more info)

The Colorado Springs Police Department formed a
nontraditional domestic violence unit in 1996 called the Domestic
Violence Enhanced Response Team (DVERT). This unit involved a
partnership and collaboration with the Center for the Prevention of
Domestic Violence, a private, nonprofit victim advocacy organization,
and 25 other city and county agencies. DVERT was unique in its focus
on the safety of the victim over the arrest and prosecution of the
batterer. It was also different from the traditional police model for
a special unit because it was a systemic response to domestic violence
situations that involved the coordination of criminal justice, social
service, and community-based agencies. This study is an 18-month
evaluation of the DVERT unit. It was designed to answer the following
research and evaluation questions: (1) What were the activities of
DVERT staff? (2) Who were the victims and perpetrators of domestic
violence? (3) What were the characteristics of domestic
violence-related incidents in Colorado Springs and surrounding
jurisdictions? (4) What was the nature of the intervention and
prevention activities of DVERT? (5) What were the effects of the
intervention? (6) What was the nature and extent of the collaboration
among criminal justice agencies, victim advocates, and city and county
human services agencies? (7) What were the dynamics of the
collaboration? and (8) How successful was the collaboration? At the
time of this evaluation, the DVERT program focused on three levels of
domestic violence situations: Level I included the most lethal
situations in which a victim might be in serious danger, Level II
included moderately lethal situations in which the victim was not in
immediate danger, and Level III included lower lethality situations in
which patrol officers engaged in problem-solving. Domestic violence
situations came to the attention of DVERT through a variety of
mechanisms. Most of the referrals came from the Center for the
Prevention of Domestic Violence. Other referrals came from the
Department of Human Services, the Humane Society, other law
enforcement agencies, or city service agencies. Once a case was
referred to DVERT, all relevant information concerning criminal and
prosecution histories, advocacy, restraining orders, and human
services documentation was researched by appropriate DVERT member
agencies. Referral decisions were made on a weekly basis by a group
of six to eight representatives from the partner agencies. From its
inception in May 1996 to December 31, 1999, DVERT accepted 421 Level I
cases and 541 Level II cases. Cases were closed or deactivated when
DVERT staff believed that the client was safe from harm. Parts 1-4
contain data from 285 Level I DVERT cases that were closed between
July 1, 1996, and December 31, 1999. Parts 5-8 contain data from 515
Level II cases from 1998 and 1999 only, because data were more
complete in those two years. Data were collected from (1) police
records of the perpetrator and victim, including calls for service,
arrest reports, and criminal histories, (2) DVERT case files,
and (3) Center for the Prevention of Domestic Violence files on
victims. Coding sheets were developed to capture the information
within these administrative documents. Part 1 includes data on whether
the incident produced injuries or a risk to children, whether the
victim, children, or animals were threatened, whether weapons were
used, if there was stalking or sexual abuse, prior criminal history,
and whether there was a violation of a restraining order. For Part 2
data were gathered on the date of case acceptance to the DVERT program
and deactivation, if the offender was incarcerated, if the victim was
in a new relationship or had moved out of the area, if the offender
had moved or was in treatment, if the offender had completed a
domestic violence class, and if the offender had served a
sentence. Parts 3 and 4 contain information on the race, date of
birth, gender, employment, and relationship to the victim or offender
for the offenders and victims, respectively. Part 5 includes data on
the history of emotional, physical, sexual, and child abuse, prior
arrests, whether the victim took some type of action against the
offender, whether substance abuse was involved, types of injuries that
the victim sustained, whether medical care was necessary, whether a
weapon was used, restraining order violations, and incidents of
harassment, criminal trespassing, telephone threats, or
kidnapping. Part 6 variables include whether the case was referred to
and accepted in Level I and whether a DVERT advocate made contact on
the case. Part 7 contains information on the offenders' race and
gender. Part 8 includes data on the victims' date of birth, race, and
gender.

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Universe:
Parts 1-4: All Level I DVERT cases that were closed
between July 1, 1996, and December 31, 1999. Parts 5-8: Level II DVERT
cases from 1998 and 1999.

Data Types:
administrative records data

Data Collection Notes:

(1) Parts 1-4 contain data for 285 Level I cases. Part
2 has less than 285 records because deactivation data were not
available for all cases. Part 4 has more than 285 records because some
cases had multiple victims. Parts 5-8 contain data for 515 Level II
cases from 1998-1999. The case counts for Parts 5-8 vary because all
information was not available for every case depending on how far
along the case was in the process. (2) Data in Parts 1-4 and Parts 5-8
can be merged into one Level I and one Level II file, respectively,
using the DVERT case number to match cases across files. A merged file
for Level II would have a large amount of missing data due to the
different case counts among the files. (3) The user guide and codebook
are provided by ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The PDF
file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be
accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat
Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is
provided on the ICPSR Web site.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
In the 1980s the Colorado Springs Police
Department (CSPD) participated in the replication of the Minneapolis
spouse assault experiment. It was one of six sites that implemented a
randomized experiment to test the notion that arresting domestic
violence perpetrators could reduce subsequent recidivism. Learning
from that experience, the CSPD formed a nontraditional domestic
violence unit in 1996 called the Domestic Violence Enhanced Response
Team (DVERT). This unit involved a partnership and collaboration with
the Center for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, a private,
nonprofit victim advocacy organization, and 25 other city and county
agencies. DVERT was unique in its focus on the safety of the victim
over the arrest and prosecution of the batterer. It was also
different from the traditional police model for a special unit because
it was a systemic response to domestic violence situations that
involved the coordination of criminal justice, social service, and
community-based agencies. DVERT encouraged efforts to establish
communication among criminal justice and service agencies, to
establish advocacy services to meet victims' needs, and to implement
policies aimed toward more aggressive apprehension and sanctioning of
offenders. This project was an 18-month evaluation of the DVERT
unit. It was designed to answer the following research and evaluation
questions: (1) What were the activities of DVERT staff? (2) Who were
the victims and perpetrators of domestic violence? (3) What were the
characteristics of domestic violence-related incidents in Colorado
Springs and surrounding jurisdictions? (4) What was the nature of the
intervention and prevention activities of DVERT? (5) What were the
effects of the intervention? (6) What was the nature and extent of
the collaboration among criminal justice agencies, victim advocates,
and city and county human services agencies? (7) What were the
dynamics of the collaboration? and (8) How successful was the
collaboration?

Study Design:
At the time of this evaluation, the DVERT program
focused on three levels of domestic violence situations: Level I
included the most lethal situations in which a victim might be in
serious danger, Level II included moderately lethal situations in
which the victim was not in immediate danger, and Level III included
lower lethality situations in which patrol officers engaged in
problem-solving. Domestic violence situations came to the attention of
DVERT through a variety of mechanisms. Most of the referrals came from
the Center for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. Other referrals
came from the Department of Human Services, the Humane Society, other
law enforcement agencies, or city service agencies. Once a case was
referred to DVERT, all relevant information concerning criminal and
prosecution histories, advocacy, restraining orders, and human
services documentation was researched by appropriate DVERT member
agencies. Referral decisions were made on a weekly basis by a group
of six to eight representatives from the partner agencies. From its
inception in May 1996 to December 31, 1999, DVERT accepted 421 Level I
cases and 541 Level II cases. Cases were closed or deactivated when
DVERT staff believed that the client was safe from harm. Parts 1-4
contain data from 285 Level I DVERT cases that were closed between
July 1, 1996, and December 31, 1999. Parts 5-8 contain data from 515
Level II cases from 1998 and 1999 only, because data were more
complete in those two years. Data were collected from (1) police
records of the perpetrator and victim, including calls for service,
arrest reports, and criminal histories, (2) DVERT case files,
and (3) Center for the Prevention of Domestic Violence files on
victims. Coding sheets were developed to capture the information
within these administrative documents.

Data Source:

Data were collected from (1) police records of the
perpetrator and victim, including calls for service, arrest reports,
and criminal histories, (2) DVERT case files, and (3) Center for the
Prevention of Domestic Violence files on victims.

Description of Variables:
Part 1 includes data on whether the incident
produced injuries or a risk to children, whether the victim, children,
or animals were threatened, whether weapons were used, if there was
stalking or sexual abuse, prior criminal history, and whether there
was a violation of a restraining order. For Part 2 data were gathered
on the date of case acceptance to the DVERT program and deactivation,
if the offender was incarcerated, if the victim was in a new
relationship or had moved out of the area, if the offender had moved
or was in treatment, if the offender had completed a domestic violence
class, and if the offender had served a sentence. Parts 3 and 4
contain information on the race, date of birth, gender, employment,
and relationship to the victim or offender for the offenders and
victims, respectively. Part 5 includes data on the history of
emotional, physical, sexual, and child abuse, prior arrests, whether
the victim took some type of action against the offender, whether
substance abuse was involved, types of injuries that the victim
sustained, whether medical care was necessary, whether a weapon was
used, restraining order violations, and incidents of harassment,
criminal trespassing, telephone threats, or kidnapping. Part 6
variables include whether the case was referred to and accepted in
Level I and whether a DVERT advocate made contact on the case. Part 7
contains information on the offenders' race and gender. Part 8
includes data on the victims' date of birth, race, and gender.

Response Rates:
Not applicable.

Presence of Common Scales:
None.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2002-05-29

Version History:

2006-03-30 File CB3282.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.